What's the difference between groan and grumble?

Groan


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To give forth a low, moaning sound in breathing; to utter a groan, as in pain, in sorrow, or in derision; to moan.
  • (v. i.) To strive after earnestly, as with groans.
  • (v. t.) To affect by groans.
  • (n.) A low, moaning sound; usually, a deep, mournful sound uttered in pain or great distress; sometimes, an expression of strong disapprobation; as, the remark was received with groans.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) For the final three visible minutes, Lockett writhed, groaned, attempted to lift himself off the gurney and tried to speak, despite a doctor having declared him unconscious.
  • (2) If I give a conference here, people groan when I talk about him.
  • (3) Of the Iraqi people, groaning under years of dictatorship.
  • (4) We meet at the headquarters of the Independent and the Evening Standard in Kensington, in an office scented by a Jo Malone orange blossom candle, and groaning with contemporary art.
  • (5) Clippard gets ahead of him 0-2, throws a high fastball which Carpenter refuses to chase and then takes two more balls to the collective groan of Nationals Park.
  • (6) Despite the world-weary tone of a brutal review in the New York Times, which suggested that it added nothing new to the "groaning shelf" of homosexual literature, a story with an unashamedly gay protagonist unleashed a storm of protest in a country where sodomy was still illegal.
  • (7) It's the first interview he's done since his marriage and divorce and the split-up of the Ordinary Boys, and it all comes rushing out in a spate, a tangle of chronological confusions and jokes, and groans when I quote some of his old interviews back at him, and statements of contrition, and digressions about Dawkins or whatever, and here's the confounding thing - he's really nothing like I was expecting, not indie-boy sulky, or attempting to play it cool, he's just talkative and engaging, and he has a sense of humour about himself that, from reading his previous interviews, I wouldn't have even guessed at.
  • (8) Not all the jokes land, and some of the tastelessness may inspire groans.
  • (9) A s the schools break up for summer, the shelves of Britain’s retailers are groaning with “half price” sun protection cream offers, ready for families heading to the beach.
  • (10) The retired appeal court judge's report, which runs to three volumes, found that troops from 1st Battalion Queen's Lancashire Regiment inflicted "gratuitous" violence on a group of 10 Iraqi civilians, who were kicked and hit in turn, "causing them to emit groans and other noises and thereby playing them like musical instruments".
  • (11) "Oh God," groaned a delegate leafing through the guide to fringe meetings.
  • (12) There were groans as Clinton was declared victorious, although there was also defiance.
  • (13) Read more The MEPs responded to his oration with a mixture of boos, groans, shouts and ironic applause.
  • (14) The family justice review speculates that the cost of the entire groaning, overloaded family court system – only likely to be exacerbated after Thursday's report into the death of another toddler, Ryan Lovell Hancox – could be in the region of £1.5bn.
  • (15) The home fans groaned whenever the ball went near the Romanian, Benteke often pulled away to the left to unsettle him, and Villa’s opener came after he conceded possession cheaply inside his own half.
  • (16) Meanwhile, New York and New Jersey groaned back to life after travel bans.
  • (17) "There's a stereotype of a groaning bodybuilding guy using the weights area," says McGown.
  • (18) I'd groan at gossip magazines, furious with the world's asinine obsession with celebrity, disappointed by women gazing doe-eyed at the camera with vulnerable, save-me expressions on their Botoxed faces.
  • (19) Between their inward groans and suppressed giggles, the friends recognised something of great value, a familiar form no other artist had yet nicked.
  • (20) I can think of many things, of whether we summon the strength to recognise the global challenge of the 21st century and beat it, of the Iraqi people groaning under years of dictatorship, of our armed forces - brave men and women of whom we can feel proud, whose morale is high and whose purpose is clear - of the institutions and alliances that shape our world for years to come.

Grumble


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To murmur or mutter with discontent; to make ill-natured complaints in a low voice and a surly manner.
  • (v. i.) To growl; to snarl in deep tones; as, a lion grumbling over his prey.
  • (v. i.) To rumble; to make a low, harsh, and heavy sound; to mutter; as, the distant thunder grumbles.
  • (v. t.) To express or utter with grumbling.
  • (n.) The noise of one that grumbles.
  • (n.) A grumbling, discontented disposition.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Should I man up, chuck out the Union flags and get back to grumbling about the Games?
  • (2) I have weekly massages to iron out all the bumps and grumbles in my legs.
  • (3) But the huge shortfalls, and the grumblings of African countries, are not going to matter as much in Washington as the fact that Obama can claim that he went face to face with China – and won.
  • (4) Although, among jobbing-actor roles in series such as Casualty, Lovejoy and Inspector Morse, he also appeared in the Dennis Potter drama Cream in My Coffee (1980), with Peggy Ashcroft; a TV version of Mr Jekyll and Hyde (1990) and Ending Up (1989), based on the Kingsley Amis novel about old buffers going grumbling to their doom.
  • (5) No: people want to see live animals!” The purists will grumble.
  • (6) The couple were not married, and there were grumblings that, with no official status as first lady, she should not be spending money on her five personal assistants and the running of an independent office in the Elysée.
  • (7) Stop grumbling about renewables and unlock the opportunities they offer.
  • (8) The companies would be in no position to grumble about unfair tactics since they are guilty of worse.
  • (9) West Ham's manager of three years, who steered the team to a 13th-place finish this season after flirting with relegation for long periods, held talks with the co-chairman David Sullivan on Tuesday amid grumbling supporters' discontent at the style of football the side have played.
  • (10) Shirburn grumbled, Ayer apologised, the tanks rolled on.
  • (11) "Diane sold her principles by sending her kids to private school and spending a lot of time on the box cosying up to Michael Portillo, making comments for the sake of projection on TV," one grumbled, anonymously, yesterday.
  • (12) Starting with the visit of Canadian rivals Toronto FC , who grumbled their way through last week’s home defeat by KC and whose mood won’t have been improved by a 3-0 thrashing in DC in midweek.
  • (13) "Bilge," he grumbled when another student wanted to know about his links with a lobbying firm that later worked for Colonel Gaddafi.
  • (14) They'd grumble, but that's business, as it happens every day.
  • (15) Since Peter Hall was allowed leaves of absence for other projects by sometimes grumbling chairmen ( as charted in his published Diaries ), there has been an emphasis on the job being full-time.
  • (16) There were authors grumbling about not going to the Oscars .
  • (17) Recent collaboration between traditionally fractious teaching unions to oppose cuts to the school rebuilding programme gained more traction than the usual grumbles about pay because it spoke to parents as well as professionals.
  • (18) He has grumbled a lot about obstruction by the civil service, but not actually done much about it.
  • (19) English friends had explained to me, not without pride, the importance of grumbling to the national character, but I still want to stress to every Londoner I meet that — take it from a visiting Los Angeleno — the tube exists, and that counts as no trifling achievement.
  • (20) Jeremy Hunt grumbled that because patients would not know their out-of-hours doctors, they would opt to go to A&E instead.